The Weekly USA Oil & Gas Update: 18th August 2015

The Oil & Gas Weekly is compiled by Todd Erickson. Todd is a veteran executive manager in the North American E&P market.

He has management experience in high-growth oil & gas service organizations performing a leadership role in operations, strategy, and corporate development with a track record of identifying opportunities and best-practices, creating execution plans, then developing effective teams and leaders to execute them.

Oil & Gas Prices - Bloomberg/EIA

General News

US independent crude producers take big losses in Q2, but still pumping more oil

According to John Kemp, ten of the largest independent oil & gas producers in the US reported total losses of $15 billion for the second quarter. Three more independents showed a profit, but at a combined total of only $16 million. Losses came despite efforts by producers to reduce costs; most producers reported cost reductions for drilling and completing wells of about 20% over a year earlier. You can credit these losses to the huge tumble in crude oil prices in the last 12 months, from close to $100 per barrel a year ago, to just over $42 per barrel this morning. Despite the drastic reduction in prices, and the resulting losses, independent producers continued to increase production, some as much as 30% over rate of a year ago. Article here

Unconventional Oil & Gas News

North Dakota crude production rises again in June

Despite the slow down in drilling, the state's crude production rose from May's 1,202,615 barrels per day average, to 1,211,1778 barrels per day in June. This is due largely to the number of drilled-yet-uncompleted wells in the fracklog that were completed during the month, says Lynn Helms, director of the state's Department of Mineral Resources. With a remaining fracklog of 848 wells, along with current drilling, Helms expects the state to maintain current production levels for the next two years, even at today's current crude oil prices. Article here

Environment and Safety News

Canadian study: moving oil via pipeline much safer than rail

In examining data provided by Canada's Transportation Safety Board and Transport Canada for the period 2003 to 2013, the Fraser Institute found oil shipments by rail were 4 1/2 times more likely to spill than if they had been shipped in a pipeline. "If you're going to move a given quantity of oil or gas by rail or by pipeline, it's considerably safer by pipeline," according to the report's author Kenneth Green. This echos similar studies performed in the US. Another consideration is incident magnitude. Pipeline spills tend to be smaller and have less impact compared to rail spills. "By design, railroads run right through population centers because you're bringing goods to market. That's where you want them to be. And by design, pipelines tend to avoid population centers. So if you are going to have an incident, the likelihood of human exposure and risk is going to be higher for your rail system," according to Green. Article here

Mergers and Acquisitions News

Hercules Offshore files for bankruptcy
The company is the owner of the Gulf of Mexico's largest offshore drilling fleet. Hercules plans to utilize bankruptcy to reorganize the company and continue operating by making holders of $1.2 billion in debt convert their loans to equity. Article here

Williams Companies on the auction block
After the recent failed acquisition proposal by Energy Transfer Equity, Williams has put itself up for sale, with several companies currently bidding including Kinder Morgan and Spectra Energy. Kinder Morgan apparently has antitrust issues with an acquisition of this magnitude. Spectra Energy, at only about half the market capitalization of Williams, is also bidding for the entire company. Article here

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